Newsletter - 2025-01-25

Ogden`s Ltd [tobacco : UK - London & Liverpool] "Whaling" (1927) 12/25 - O100-588 : O/2-183 : RB.21/215-169.A : O/169 [RB.15/169]

Clutching at straws here a bit, but I just found out that the "Dino Snores - for Adults" sessions are back at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, and the first session is tonight, the 25th of January.

If that is a bit short notice fear not, for they are on again on the 21st February, 7th March and 4th April. Before you get too excited though, the night does cost £220, for the most basic ticket. But if you are sitting here thinking that`s not so bad for such an awesome experience, nip along to their website and find out more. 

And I thank them for saving me from the distinct possibility of having a blank day. 

Now the highlight of the entire session is said to be sleeping beneath one of the Natural History Museum`s most famous exhibits, the giant skeleton of the blue whale, and here on our card we have an entire school of whales, though they are probably not blue ones. Or they might be, because, lets face it, they are in the freezing water, so they could well be a little bit blue with the cold, their blubber notwithstanding.

The blue whale skeleton at the Natural History Museum, which measures 25.2 metres long, was first put into place in Hintze Hall, the grand entrance way from Cromwell Road to the museum galleries, just in time for the first public visits on Friday 14 July 2017. She is female, and she has been called Hope. She is intended to show the great size of the creatures that form the animal kingdom, but also the fragility of the structure that lies hidden beneath their outer coating of skin. 

In any event I am delighted to find what is quite a sweet card amidst a set which is more concerned with killing them - and so you do at least get to see a set which is not to my liking.  But if you are made of sterner stuff you can see all the cards, and read the text from the backs, at Cool Antarctica/Whaling

The set first appears in our original Ogden`s reference book. RB.15, published in 1949, as : 

169. WHALING.  Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in dark grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1927. Similar series issued by B.A.T and Player.

The trio next appear in our original British American Tobacco booklet, RB.21, published in 1952, under section 215, that being for corrections and additions to the original Ogdens booklet. The text here reads :

215-169. WHALING. This series was issued as follows :- 
                A. Ogden`s Home issue
                B. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back
                C. Player Overseas issue. 

The index in the front of this book tells us that both the British American Tobacco and the John Player versions were issued in 1930, three years after our Ogden one. Neither of those show the issuer`s name on the fronts, for they were both issued overseas - the B.A.T. version in Malaya, and the Player one in New Zealand, though some collectors say that they were issued in Malaya and Siam. The British American Tobacco version is the one which is cited as "anonymous" and this is how you will often find it listed in auctions, and why it lurks in the "Z" codes at the back of the original World Tobacco Issues Index - however it is also quite different from the other two, and much more decorative, with a frameline of rope, and a cartouche at the bottom, containing, for the most part, a sailing ship.  

In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, our Ogden version is described as simply : 

WHALING. Sm. Nd. (25) See RB.21/215-169.A ... O/2-183

and this text is repeated in our updated version, even the RB.21 reference, except for the code, which is now O100-588

Sumner`s Typhoo Tea [trade : tea : UK - Birmingham] "Travel Through the Ages" (1961) 17/24 - TYP-630 : SUM-53

Now this, another almost-going-to-be blank space, has also been filled courtesy of the same site, London Drum, that I used above.

They tell me that today, the 26th of January, the London Underground Walking Tours start up again after their Christmas break. But of course it is not all walking, you take the train from station to station and then get out and walk whilst the guide explains what you are seeing. 

These start from Baker Street and aim to show selected highlights of the tube network that most people pass by every day without really noticing. This includes stations which are no longer on the map, but are still down there, abandoned, many of which have amazing tales to tell.

This card is curious to me, for there is quite a lot of artist`s licence.

First of all, if you look at the roundel on the wall, which ought to contain a station name, that name starts with a "G", and it looks like it continues with "IOL"  - however there are only twelve London stations starting with "G", and only five of those have the station underground as is shown here, namely Gants Hill, Gloucester Road, Goodge Street, Great Portland Street, and Green Park - all the rest have the station above the ground, and the roof opening up into the sky. 

Secondly, in 1961, when this set was issued, all underground trains were unpainted, silvery aluminium -and this colour scheme ran right through until February 2008.  It is possible that Sumner`s, being in Birmingham, did not know this, and relied on illustrations of earlier trains, those of the Metropolitan Line being painted red.

By the way, the only station on the Metropolitan Line beginning with a "G" is Great Portland Street, but it still does not look like the name in the roundel on the card. What do you think? 

This set of cards first appear in our original British Trade Index part II, under Sumner`s Ty-phoo Tea". They are part of section 4, that being for "Small card issues 1961-67. Small size 68 x 36 m/m. Special album issued.". They were also part of a promotional scheme, where you could exchange a complete set of the cards that you cut off the packet for this set of proper coloured cards. In fact two more of the issues under this section were the same, only available in exchange for the packet issue cards - these being "Do You Know", and "Wild Flowers". 

So to tell the story of this set, we will start with the listing for its package issue, and we will also try to find the package version(s) of this card to insert - and I can say "versions" because there were actually two - described as  : 

TRAVEL THROUGH THE AGES. Nd. (24). Text (a) with (b) without framelines. Set exchanged for SUM-53 ... SUM-47

The listing for our coloured cards reads : 

TRAVEL THROUGH THE AGES. Sm. Nd. (24). Exchanged for set SUM-47 ... SUM-53

Now in our updated British Trade Index, the set is listed not as Sumner`s but simply as "Ty-Phoo Tea". This book puts the package issue and the cards together, as : 

TRAVEL THROUGH THE AGES. 1961 ... TYP-630

1. 115 x 47. Package issues. Black and red. Exchangeable for set plus album, as recorded below. Available (a) with (b) without red framelines.

2. 68 x 36. Nd. (24). Album issued. Obtained in exchange for set recorded above.

Stollwerck [trade : chocolate : O/S - Germany] "Altere Deutsche Meister der Tonkunst" / "Old German Masters of Music" (1908) Album 10, Gruppe 442, card V

Today in 1756 saw Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart born in Salzburg, Austria. As this card shows so ably, he was a child prodigy, and by the time he was five years old he was not only able to play the violin, and the klavier, but he had started to write his own music, and he had also performed in front of Prince Elector Maximilian III of Bavaria.

By the way, "klavier" is simply German for piano, but it looks more interesting.

By the time he was seventeen he had become a musician at the court on Salzburg, but he found it dull. Much of this was down to his upbringing, where he had travelled widely, and he missed the adventures. The truth also is that when he travelled he was not really old enough to understand it and to experience the pleasures - as an older teenager it is only natural that he wished to return with a more adult mind. 

He did start to travel, only to lose his position at the court at Salzburg. At the time he was in Vienna, and he stayed there, writing, and trying to eke out a living as best he could. In 1782 he was married, to the sister of a girl he had wooed but failed to win. It seems that his future bride was the instigator of the marriage, even going so far as to move in with him. Eventually he saw no option but to wed her, and he must have come round to liking her a bit as they had six children, though four of them died when very small, one of them pretty much at birth. He started to run out of money, and to move to ever smaller places. 

In 1791 he started to feel unwell, though he continued to appear at events, including premieres of two of his works. However in the November of that year he had no option but to take to his bed, and a few days later, on the 5th of December 1791, he died, aged just thirty-five. 

After his death, it is said that he was buried in a common grave, with no mourners. This is slightly dramatized, for anyone who was not royalty would have been referred to as being in a common grave -  it does not mean, as is often supposed, a pauper`s grave. How that arose is almost certainly through researchers reading of his struggles with money and making up their own version of the truth.

We do know that he was dug up in 1855, and moved to Vienna`s Central Cemetery, where there is a musician`s section. Later, in 1950, this was enhanced with a tablet and column. 

As far as the lack of mourners, this would have been usual, for at that time most burials were unattended. Later there were reports that some people did attend, but we are not entirely sure if this is the truth, or slight embroidery to make a normal situation at the time seem less abnormal to modern readers. 

This card, by Stollwerck, shows little Mozart at his piano. He looks stiff and not too happy, and look at the formality of his clothes. Also the person bending over his tiny shoulder seems a very harsh taskmaster indeed. I shudder to think what would happen if a wrong note was struck. It does not make me think being a child prodigy was that much fun. 

This is a set of six cards, comprising : 

1. -   I - Joh. Seb. Bach
2. -  II - Handel
3. - III - Christophe Willibald Gluck
4. - IV - Joseph Haydn 
5. -  V - Mozart
6. - VI - Beethoven

Our card has an artist`s name, on the front, just behind the chair, of Ellie Hirsch, but I have been unable to find anyone by that name. 

Simonets Ltd [tobacco : O/S - Jersey] "Famous Actors & Actresses" (1929) 19/27 - S459-800 : S68-8 : 

Now at this point when I wrote my notes on paper, this was the fourth Centenary - but the others I struggled with, and eventually abandoned. 

Anyway, today in 1925, Gloria Swanson married into French nobility, taking as her husband James Henry Le Bailly de La Falaise, Marquis de La Coudraye. He was also a film director and producer, and, sometimes, when fancy struck, an actor.  He had been born on February the 11th 1898, so he was approximately a year older than his bride. He was also the holder of the Croix de Guerre, received for bravery during the First World War - and would win it a second time during the Second World War. 

He had met Miss Swanson on the set of her film "Madame Sans Gene", on which he was a translator. Sadly this film, which was extraordinarily lavish, no longer exists.

Their marriage, her third, was quite short, and turbulent; not helped by the fact that she had already been pregnant on her wedding day, and was reluctantly convinced that it would be best for her career to not have the child, something she much regretted later. She also soured the relationship by striking up a rather hot and heavy relationship with Joseph P. Kennedy Senior, the father of the future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

She divorced in 1931, but she was already heavily involved with her future fourth husband, and already having his child. And she would marry six times in all. 

This seems not to have unduly worried the Marquis de La Coudraye, who married another film star, Constance Bennett, a few days after his divorce from Gloria Swanson. They stayed together until 1940 and were then divorced, presumably so that he could marry again, a Colombian lady, who remained with him until his death in 1972. 

Strangely, he seems to have remained close friends with Gloria Swanson, and the two worked together during the Second World War on an undercover scheme to rescue scientists from Germany. She also openly said, several times, that she regretted marrying her fourth husband, and there is more than a suspicion that maybe he married his third wife too quickly; given a longer gap, perhaps they would have gone back together. 

Now if you say Simonets to most collectors, they will think of the black and white football set, "Local Footballers”, issued in 1913/14 - which we featured as our Card of the Day for the 6th of November, 2021.

This set comes from the second batch of issues, which began in the 1920s, and are all photographic cards. These comprise "Cinema Scenes Series" (issued in 1927), "Beautiful Women" (1928), plus our set "Famous Actors and Actresses" and "Sporting Celebrities" (both 1929). There is also another issue, which is so far not proven to be by Simonets, only supposed; that is anonymous and untitled, and known as "Picture Series". 

Our set is listed in the original World Tobacco Issues Index as : 

FAMOUS ACTORS AND ACTRESSES. Sm. 66 x 35. Black and white photos. Nd. (27) ... S69-8

This text is identical in our updated volume, save a new card code, of S459-800.

And you will find a pictorial checklist of all the cards in this set courtesy of the Trading Card Database/SimonetsFilm

We do know that in 1936 the company was taken over by the Jersey Tobacco Company, who I originally said never seem to have issued  cards. I have since been corrected in this, because they are better known as the makers of Ching & Co`s Cigarettes, who issued several sets of cards in the 1960s. And you can read a bit more about them with our Card of the Day for the 12th of May, 2022 - though I have not quite finished that yet.

Shell [trade : service stations : O/S - Australia] "Discover Australia With Shell" - set one (1959) 54/240 - SH6-1.1 

Today is an auspicious day indeed, for in many parts of Asia it is the Lunar New Year.

Now in China, and many other areas, a succession of animals revolve in a twelve year cycle. Last year was the year of the dragon, and this year will be the year of the snake. However there is more to it than that, for there are also two elements that also change - one represents the ethereal heavens, and this year that is wood, whilst the other represents the more earthbound part of life, and this year that is fire. So though you will read that 2025 is the year of the snake, it is actually the year of the wood fire snake.

Now wood and fire are not exactly great together, for if the wood meets the fire it can lead to flames, and some believe that this means there could be some untoward events going on around the world, whether these be natural or man made. However sometimes the wood merely smoulders, and some knight in shining armour rides up and stamps the flames out before they can start to burn too bright. 

Finding a snake on a card is not easy, at least from a set I have not used before. Finding wood, fire, and a snake, what can I say. I have however come across this card, which shows a snake, albeit black, though it is also red, which often represents fire, and there are trees, for the wood. So that will suffice.

As of tonight, there is now a home page for all nine of the sets in this group, and you can see that as our Card of the Day for the 19th of March, 2024. That contains links to all the other sets , and it will continue to be updated as we show them until all are there.

The group is listed in our original Australian and New Zealand Index, RB.30, published in 1983, under SHELL (Service Stations). It comes under group 1, "Issues in Australia - Inscribed "Shell" without full name", and our section is listed as : 

Discover Australia with Shell. 76-78 x 51. Four sets of 60.  ... SH6-1

1. Nos. 1/60, back vertical. Flora and Fauna. Two pictures at No.5 (Kangaroo Paw) - (1) flower with three stems (2) flower with two stems. Few copies of album known - it was probably withdrawn as it contains errors so that all cards do not fit the places provided. 
2. Nos. 61/120, back horizontal. Shells, Fish and Coral
3. Nos. 121/180, back horizontal. Birds
4. Nos. 181/240, back horizontal. Butterflies and Moths

Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S - South America] "Ports d`Outre Mer" / "Overseas Ports" (1909) Un/6 - F.968 : S.971

And so off we go on our travels, to a remote little spot called Yerba Buena, which, today in 1847, was renamed, to San Francisco. 

Now Yerba Buena still exists as a name, but only in horticulture, for it  is the name of several plants in the mint family, and it is Spanish for "Good Herb", both for medicinal purposes and to flavour food. In fact the full name of the town was El Paraje de Yerba Buena, and "Paraje" means place - which seems to prove the area was more known for its foliage than anything else, and that the township sprang up to be closer to the valuable crop.

It slowly began to become more popular, but then in 1846 it was captured, during the Conquest of California, an odd campaign, part of the American Mexican War. It then became American, but it did not change its name until today in 1847. 

It was the California Gold Rush that changed everything, a sudden influx of miners, in 1849, all hoping to strike it lucky, in many ways. They swelled the population, and led to rapid expansion, of living accommodation and pleasure palaces. Some say that this was the start of the area`s reputation as a place where anything goes.

A year later, with California as the new, thirty-first American State, the area was still booming. However, on April 18, 1906, there was an earthquake of massive proportion, which led to sinkholes, gas escapes, and fires. Long straight stretches of desolation were clear to see. Over three quarters of the city was destroyed, almost five hundred people died, and tent cities for the homeless spread in all directions.

It took a while to rebuild, and was still not fully complete in some areas when the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition was held there.

And yet this card was published in 1909. So we have to wonder whether this was an old stock image, and whether Liebig even knew of the scale of the disaster. Today with the internet we know everything, immediately, but in 1909, in another country, maybe they did not.

The building in the inset is the Cliff House, and it was built in 1863. Most of its life it has been a restaurant, with fantastic views, but now it is owned by the National Parks Service. 

This set is called by many different names. Literally translated, it is Ports of Another Sea - but you will find it as Overseas Ports, Coastal Ports, Sea Ports, etc. It contains six cards, which are : 

• Alexandrie [Alexandria, Egypt]
• Hong Kong [China, but in 1909 a British Crown Colony]
• Melbourne [Australia]
• Montevideo [Uruguay]
• Nagasaki [Japan]
• San Francisco [California, USA] 

Ours is the French version, but you will also find it in Dutch and German. 

Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S - South America] "Schubert" (1928) 3/6 - F.1217 : S.1219

And so we end, with music - and Franz Peter Schubert, born today in Austria, in 1797. 

He was a prolific composer, and though he died young, just like Mozart - and actually even younger, aged just thirty-one, he left behind him getting on for a thousand works, in all different musical genres, including orchestral and voice music, and several operas. 

He was born in Vienna, the twelfth child of a schoolmaster, though there were fourteen in total, nine of whom died in infancy. He was taught the violin by his father, though we are left wondering whether his father was a musician and a school teacher, or whether the music had not paid enough, though the enthusiasm remained. He certainly knew enough that he proclaimed his son a great violinist, and at the age of eleven little Franz was enrolled at the Imperial Seminary, on the grounds of musical ability, and even his teachers admitted he was so talented they did not know how to show him more.

Then there seems to have been a break. He went home to the family, to become a schoolteacher, but still kept up his music and his writing. By all reports he was desperately unhappy with teaching in a school, though his private lessons seem to have been more joyful. This is almost certainly why he joined the Viennese Music Association. They welcomed him with open arms, and supported him in all his conflict as to his future direction in life. They also encouraged him to perform his works in a grand concert in March 1828 - but eight months later he died, before he had chance to do more, or really even to choose. 

He never married, and he seems to have had few true friends. And though we know about him from his music he left few clues as to how he felt inside. We are left to guess, and ponder, and hope that he did know happiness and friendship, and that it pleased him. It seems his main friendship, and perhaps what may have become a romance, given time, was with his young pupil Countess Caroline Esterhazy, not yet a teenager, who appears on card 4 of this set. We do know that he also much admired Beethoven, card 5 shows a visit to his deathbed, though some scholars say this never did take place, but he was a pall bearer at his funeral, and he left instruction that the two be buried nearby to each other.

Franz Schubert`s "Rookie" card is widely reported to be card 9 of W.D. & H.O. Wills "Musical Celebrities"., issued in 1912. The reverse text tells us that his first song, "The Erl King" was composed at the age of eighteen. It is where I gleaned the fact that "he wrote nearly 1,000 compositions in 18 years". However we know that he appeared on Ogden`s Guinea Gold Series C number 238, which almost certainly predates that Wills card.

Our set tells the story of his life, as : 

1. Schubert comme chantrer au seminaire [Schubert entering the Seminary] 
2. Music de Chambre [Chamber Music, in other words for a small group not an orchestra] 
3. Composition du "Roi des Aulnes" [writing "King of the Alders" - also known, as on the Wills card, as "The Erl King"]
4. Professeur de Musique chez Esterhazy [Schubert and his pupil Countess Caroline Esterhazy].
5. Au Chevette Mortuaire de Beethoven [visiting Beethoven on his deathbed].
6. Monument a Vienne et Medaille Commemorative [his monument in Vienna, and a commemorative medal] 

It was published in French, Italian and German - the text above is from our, French, edition. The German one does add on card 6 that the medal was a centenary medal, not just a commemorative one, and from that we know that the medal was issued the same year as this card, in 1928 - which is probably why the set was issued.